Projects: #TeeUpTheSkills

download the year one summary

Tee Up the Skills

In the Fall of 2018, the Education Design Lab (Lab), launched Tee Up the Skills with seven two- and four-year colleges and universities across the U.S. The year-long pilot paired each school with at least one employer partner to understand how the Lab’s 21st Century Skills Digital Badges could improve students’ career readiness and serve as valuable signals for entry-level hiring. This paper outlines key milestones, tools and learnings from one year of testing with the Tee Up cohort.

Overview

Over the 2018-2019 academic year, the Lab selected seven learning institutions and their employer partner(s) to issue the Lab's 21st Century Skills Badges, seeking to test the efficacy of the badges in a hiring process.

The employer partners have agreed to look at the resumés of any student who applies to their company with at least one of the Lab’s eight badges. Tracking both students and employers through this college-to-career process will allow us to see to what extent digital badges can level the playing field in hiring and provide valuable insight into the interoperability of emerging credentials with today’s hiring tools and practices.

_____________

Education Design Lab is a nonprofit that designs, tests, and implements unique higher education models and credentials that address the rapidly changing economy and emerging technology opportunities. The Lab demonstrates where technology, rigor and design can improve opportunity for historically underserved students to maximize their potential in the higher education system.

WHY THE T?A Job Formation + Translation Tool

The T-Profile is a visual construct of both the ideal combination of technical skills and the 21st century skills associated with a particular job. It can be used as an alternative or complement to a wordy job description, as a way for a prospective candidate to understand how their skills "match" with those of the position, or even as a way for prospective candidates to develop and display their skills.

The 2018-19 Cohort

The cohort institutions serve 175,000 students in total. Most of the institutions serve a majority percentage of historically underserved populations, including a significant number of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, active duty military, veterans and rurally-based students.

Institutions

San Jose State University

Central New Mexico Community College

Alamo Colleges District

American Public University System

University at Albany- State University of New York

University of Maine

Langston University

Employers

H.E.B.

Accenture

FDM Group

TLC Plumbing

Jaynes Corporation

Ernst & Young

Enterprise

Cisco Systems

Bangor Savings Bank

Northern Light Health

ONEOK

SURVEYING THE COHORTWhat We're Learning from Employers

At the onset of the 2018-19 cohort, the Lab conducted a survey of employers to glean a better understanding of employers' perspective on credentialing, as well as their needs for hiring entry-level employees.

On Employer Partnerships: how do we make these opportunities available to students on #ruralcampuses that don’t have employers/internships available in their backyard #TeeUpTheSkills #BadgedToHire @USouthernMaine

Very proud that @AlamoColleges1 Online is supporting @govista in working with the 20 @HEB interns on #21stCenturySkills #digitalbadges #microcredentials this summer! @eddesignlab #TeeUpTheSkills phase two.

Design Challenge Lead

Michelle is a Design Challenge Lead for the Lab’s Badging Challenge. Michelle is also the President of Lead by Experience, offering strategic and tactical consulting to help leadership teams across: business, health care and education improve their customer experience.

Through her coaching, Michelle loves to “gently” break up typical functional silos to stimulate collaboration and steer change management across organizations. She integrates new, cost effective, ways to capture and understand customers’ expectations, wants and needs.

Prior to establishing her own business, Michelle held executive positions in telecommunications at MCI and NII Holdings where she held the position of Senior Director of Customer Experience. Michelle earned a Masters of Arts degree in Education: Curriculum & Instruction from Loyola College in Maryland and completed an Executive Certification in Global Leadership from Georgetown University – the McDonough School of Business.

Michael Meotti

Higher Ed Fellow

Mike brings extensive experience in higher education policy, innovation and management to Education Design Lab’s work. Mike has a broad perspective on the challenges facing colleges and universities based on his past leadership positions in state government, nonprofit organizations and higher education systems. He has led transformation initiatives in all of these sectors.

Mike served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Higher Education and Executive Vice President and chief operating officer of the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education.

Mike was a member of the Executive Committee and Vice Chair of the Federal Relations Committee of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO). He led the Connecticut delegation in the National Governors Association Best Practices Academy “Complete to Compete” and in Complete College America. Michael was also active in the state policy track of Achieving the Dream and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Coalition for the Common Core Standards. He earned his J.D. and B.S. degrees from Georgetown University.

Prior to his work in higher education, Mike led several nonprofit organizations that provided services addressing the needs of many “first generation” and returning adult students.